Head of Onboarding & FinCrime Operations

Airwallex; California; Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Airwallex is seeking a senior leader to own the vision, strategy and execution for Onboarding and FinCrime Operations. You will build and lead a globally distributed team, enabling 24/7 coverage, scalable processes and data-driven performance management across multiple jurisdictions.

You will drive AI and automation transformation while balancing risk, customer experience and commercial impact. This role requires strong cross-functional collaboration with product, risk, compliance and

Qualifications

• Proven senior leadership experience in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations within regulated financial services.
• Deep knowledge of AML/CTF, sanctions, KYC, transaction monitoring and investigations.
• Track record of scaling FinCrime/Onboarding across geographies with consistent performance.
• Delivery of automation- or AI-led transformation in an operations setting.

Responsibilities

• Own the vision, strategy and execution for Onboarding and FinCrime Operations across multiple jurisdictions.
• Build and lead a globally distributed team with 24/7 coverage and cost efficiency.
• Create scalable operating rhythms with clear OKRs and data-driven performance management.
• Balance risk, customer experience and commercial impact in decisions.
• Lead AI and automation transformation of Onboarding and FinCrime Operations.
• Partner across Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, Engineering and Commercial.

Skills

Senior leadership

AML/CTF expertise

Sanctions knowledge

KYC processes

Transaction monitoring

Automation/AI transformation

Cross-functional collaboration

Outsourcing / offshore capacity

Tools

Risk Product tools

Data teams collaboration

Job description

About Airwallex

Airwallex is the AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. More than 675,000 businesses, including McLaren Racing, Qantas, SHEIN, and TikTok, use us, directly or through our platform partners, to run their financial operations or build and monetize financial products of their own.

We started in Melbourne in 2015 to build the infrastructure global commerce runs on. We're the regulated backbone behind global payments: not by accident, but by design. A decade plus, 85+ licenses, and a financial infrastructure spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

We're co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, with more than 2,700 people across 27 offices. We hire builders with founder-level energy, people who move fast with good judgment, dig in with real curiosity, and make calls from first principles rather than waiting to be told what to do. Read our operating principles to see it in full.

How you'll make impact

Own the vision, strategy and execution for Onboarding and FinCrime Operations, covering new client onboarding and periodic review across multiple jurisdictions, products and markets.

• Build, lead and develop a high-performing, globally distributed team, managing capacity, location and resourcing to support business growth, 24/7 coverage, customer experience and cost efficiency.

• Create a repeatable, scalable operating rhythm with clear OKRs and data-driven performance management.

• Balance financial crime risk, customer experience and commercial impact, enabling timely, high-quality decisions and communication.

• Improve the quality of procedures, playbooks, control frameworks and documentation, working closely with 2LOD Financial Crime Compliance, Risk Product and Engineering.

• Lead the AI and automation transformation of Onboarding and FinCrime Operations, driving better quality, consistency, scalability and operational efficiency.

• Build strong partnerships across Operations, Product, Risk, Compliance, Engineering and Commercial teams to deliver cross-functional outcomes.

You’ll work from our London office three days a week.

What we're looking for

Essentials

• Proven senior leadership experience in large-scale, multi-jurisdiction operations within a regulated financial services, payments or fintech business.

• Deep knowledge of AML/CTF, sanctions, KYC, transaction monitoring and investigations processes and controls, including how they map into first-line operations.

• A track record of scaling FinCrime and/or Onboarding Operations across multiple product lines and geographies while building globally consistent performance.

• Demonstrated delivery of automation- or AI-led transformation in an operations setting, or clear strategic and technical fluency to lead it.

• Strong commercial and analytical judgement, with the ability to frame decisions through unit economics, scalability and return on investment.

• Experience operating at the intersection of Operations, Product and Risk, driving cross-functional outcomes without full reporting-line authority.

• Experience managing outsourced, BPO or offshore capacity at scale.

Preferred

• Experience in cross-border payments or multi-entity, multi-licence environments.

• Comfort working with highly technical, API-first products.

• Demonstrable experience driving tooling and rule evolution with Risk Product and Data teams.

• Experience leading AI transformation in Onboarding and FinCrime Operations.

• A top-tier consulting or operator-investor background, with structured thinking under ambiguity.

• A relevant professional certification, such as CAMS, ICA or ACAMS.

You'll thrive here if

• You're comfortable owning the roadmap yourself.

• You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and moving quickly anyway.

• You’ve operated in a compliance-heavy environment and know how to move fast without cutting the corners that matter.

• You connect dots across functions and hold the big picture without losing grip on the details.

• You say what you mean. You're direct, but you lead with respect.

Learn more about your team

Operations at Airwallex is where global ambition gets translated into systems that actually hold at scale.

This team runs the high-stakes flows businesses depend on — payments, accounts, and cross-border transactions. The work sits at the intersection of product, compliance, and customer experience. The problems are rarely simple: balancing speed with rigor, global consistency with local reality, and immediate execution with the stronger systems a growing company needs next.

It's a function for operators with a builder mentality: trusted to take ownership, work cross-functionally with product and risk, and create new processes for things that have not existed before.

If you want to help build the operational backbone of a global financial platform, this is work that keeps the whole machine moving.

Equal opportunity

Airwallex is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and anyone seeking employment at Airwallex is considered based on merit, qualifications, competence and talent. We don’t regard color, religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, ancestry, citizenship, sex, marital or family status, disability, gender, or any other legally protected status when making our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.